K11 Owners Group

[Bazsm]

How effective is ABS2, touch wood but in all my years of riding I’ve rarely locked up when braking even in the wet. ABS on a bike has always seemed far more of a requirement than in a car but does it actually keep you upright if you hit both brakes as hard as possible in the rain?
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1994 K1100LT

[Grunter]

I think largely that depends if you are upright at the time and not leaning into a corner, then nothing will stop you going down if you brake hard in the wet.

I have had 8 BMW's of various models with ABS and never have I had it kick in. Perhaps it is my riding style where I was taught to drive/ride defensively. Old habits die hard.

I have been off a few times and each time what happened ABS would not have saved me. The last time the bike I was riding didn't have ABS and I had to avoid an errant animal on the road. My front wheel dropped into a pot hole at the side of the road and I stopped suddenly, then fell sideways. I broke my collar bone. Like I said, ABS would not have helped
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1997 K1100LT
1994 R1100RS

[Bazsm]

[Scott_Anderson]

I've has my ABS2 activate quite a few times.

I was coming up on an intersection(on one of my K's) that was covered in sand so I didn't even touch the front brake, but the rear ABS did engage as anticipated(and expected).
The few times I've had a bike off-road, the ABS did engage if I grabbed too much rear brake.

Another situation(on my R bike) was what some would call a panic stop, but even as I had anticipated it, it was still a short stop. Experience had me hard on the rear brake, not as hard on the front, but ABS did engage for the rear.

As far as wet pavement engagement, I've had the rear trigger a few times. Never lost control as I was in an upright position.

Can't say as I've ever grabbed the front hard enough to cause the ABS to activate.
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Ride safe.



1995 K1100LT 0302044
1997 R1100RT ZC62149
2017 FLHTK Ultra Limited
Garmin StreetPilot 2820
Garmin Zumo 550
Garmin Zumo XT
"One who does not ask questions is ashamed to learn" Danish proverb
1997 K1100LT 0302488(R.I.P.)

[Bazsm]

[Flying Duck]

I once took my K1100RS (94–ABS 2) off-road in The Sierras (mountainous part of California.) The unpaved road was covered in an extremely fine silt. I took it easy and quickly discovered that due to the ABS kicking in I quite literally had ZERO braking. The ONLY way to slow the bike was via engine braking.

Not being of sound mind, I continued on at a mellow pace and it was a VERY strange experience to be riding a motorcycle without any brakes. When I got about a mile and a half in I got to part of the road with a moderate upward incline and it started getting pretty rutted out. So I decided to back down the hill, turn around and escape. Sure enough, when I started slowly backing down the hill my brakes were simply not there. Out of reflex or whatever I hit the kill switch which allowed me to stop. Once the bike was turned off the ABS system was no longer active so I could actually use the front brake to slow myself when backing down the hill.

I much prefer the ABS 1 on my 93 LT. The reason is that there are several situations where the ABS 2 on my RS gives a “false positive” – ABS kicking in when it shouldn’t.

False positive #1: Right near where I used to live in Seattle there’s a steep hill with a stop sign at the top. In order to meet with the crossroad the street goes from a steep incline to level about ten feet before the stop sign. Since it’s right next to my house I rode this all of the time. On the ABS 2 bike, when the rear gets “light” right before the stop sign it releases the rear brake. Since I pretty much always brake 80/20 front/rear the first time this happened I ended up stopping about 10-15 feet past my planned stopping point. This has never happened to me on the 93 LT with ABS 1.

False positive #2: There’s a stop light (again, right near my house so ridden quite often) at the bottom of a fairly steep hill. Since the City of Seattle isn’t that diligent about fixing bad pavement, this downhill is somewhat potholed with uneven pavement. When braking downhill for the light the rear ABS lets go on the ABS 2 bike but never has on the ABS 1 bike.

False positive #3: Lane-splitting in the rain in San Francisco. The ABS 2 lets the rear brake go when going over the wet road nipples in between the lanes. A little disconcerting the first time it happened but once I learned to accept it and alter my riding accordingly not a big deal.

Despite all of that, having put lots of miles on ABS equipped Ks I’ve had several instances when the ABS kicked in and has “saved my bacon.”

I was riding my K1100RS in California one night and decided that I needed to mess with my GPS. Since there was traffic around and what I wanted to do with the GPS was a bit complicated I decided to pull over and stop. Since it was a dark night I did not see the gravel on the road where I’d decided to pull off to the right. In the last ten feet of my stop the front ABS 2 kicked when the front tire started to slide. I was going fairly slowly and if the front had washed out I probably would’ve walked off of the bike uninjured but the ABS did probably save me from smashing a mirror and rashing the fairing.

Another time I was accelerating on a freeway onramp on the LT. When I did a shoulder check to the left to figure out my merge and then looked ahead again the pickup truck in front of me had slammed on his brakes. I grabbed a whole handful of front brake, the front ABS kicked in and I came to a stop about a foot short of his bumper. Without the ABS I probably would’ve washed out the front end or bent my forks hitting his bumper.

I certainly don’t rely on the ABS but when you make a mistake it’s nice to have it there as a backup.

My K75RT was non-ABS. I was once riding very leisurely one afternoon and came to a stop sign at the bottom of the hill. It was a sunny dry day and there was some sand right at the stop sign that was the exact same color as the pavement and pretty much invisible. In the last few feet of my stop the front end washed out and the bike threw itself to the ground. I was going so slow at that point that I just walked off of the bike and remained standing but the fairing got pretty trashed. If I’d had ABS on that bike then that probably would not have happened.

I’ve never had my ABS kick in on wet pavement (aside from the false positive I described above.) JMHO but I think the ABS is needed most on dry pavement where you aren’t expecting a low traction condition. (Unseen sand, gravel, oil or diesel patches.)

It is early ABS though so it works best when riding upright and straight. I don’t think it would help much if leaned over.

I’ve considered putting a switch into the main wire from the ignition in order to be able to disable the ABS (for riding gravel/mud/whatever) but have never gotten around to it. (Red wire to ABS Pin 14 is the power in for ABS 2 K1100s.)
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93 LT (x2)
94 RS
86-97 K75F(K75/100/1100 Frankenbrick)
86 K75C w/paralever, hi perf cams,TURBO!
91 & 92 K75Ss
91 K1
86 custom K100
14 WR250R
IBA #17739 (SS1K, BBG, 50CC)
Buy parts HERE

[Flying Duck]

Amusing anecdote: I had a barber who spent about five years as a motocop ticketing speeders. I found out he rode because I told him that I wanted a really short haircut because I often wear a motorcycle helmet.

He rode an R1200RTP. When I mentioned ABS he said that he loved it and it kicked in all of the time for him. He'd radar a speeder doing 70 in a 35 or whatever so he wicked it up through the gears and then the instant the speeder would see his red and blues in the mirror they would slam on the brakes while he was riding hard to catch them. He found the ABS very useful when that happened.
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93 LT (x2)
94 RS
86-97 K75F(K75/100/1100 Frankenbrick)
86 K75C w/paralever, hi perf cams,TURBO!
91 & 92 K75Ss
91 K1
86 custom K100
14 WR250R
IBA #17739 (SS1K, BBG, 50CC)
Buy parts HERE

[Bazsm]

[Flying Duck]